Yankees Sweep Indians Out of New York

New York is not where dreams are made of for the Cleveland Indians. No, New York is where nightmares are born and hope goes to die. Okay, maybe that’s being a bit melodramatic, but with yesterday’s loss and three game series sweep by the New York Yankees, the Indians can’t get out of there soon enough.

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Yesterday’s 6-4 loss was seemingly over before either pitcher could work themselves up a good sweat. After the first two innings the Yankees had jumped out to a six run lead. It was all the run support former Tribe ace C.C. Sabathia would need as he dominated the Indians for a complete game victory. Over the course of nine innings he allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out nine and walking only one. It was his second straight dominating performance and a stark contrast from that of Indians starter Corey Kluber. Kluber labored his way through six innings of work allowing six runs on seven hits. He did strike out nine, but the two home runs were the proverbial nails in the coffin.

The Yankees started their scoring spree in the bottom of the first inning when Travis Hafner homered to right to score Robinson Cano. The homer, which traveled 411 feet was Hafner’s 10th on the season and his third of the season against his former team. In the bottom of the second, the Yankees added four more runs. Chris Stewart singled home Lyle Overbay to make it a 3-0 game. Then, with two on, Brett Gardner homered to right, scoring Jayson Nix and Stewart to put the Yankees up 6-0.

The Indians did eventually put some runs on the board to make things interesting, but it was far from being enough against Sabathia. In the top of the sixth they were able to put a rally together. Jason Kipnis delivered with an RBI single to score Drew Stubbs and Nick Swisher scored Michael Bourn on a fielder’s choice. Unfortunately, Mark Reynolds struck out to end the inning and kill the rally. The following inning, Yan Gomes came calling with a two run fomer to left to cut the Yankee lead to 6-4. Unfortunately, Sabathia would refocus and allow only one base runner over the remainder of the game.

On the bright side, at least the Indians didn’t have to face Mariano Rivera.

The Tribe will look to bounce back this weekend as they travel to Detroit to take on the Tigers for a three game weekend series. With the loss the Indians are now 30-29 on the season and have fallen to two games back of the Tigers in the Central division standings. They have also lost four in a row and are now 3-7 in their last 10 games.

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The Good: Yan Gomes continued to make the case for more playing time with his sixth home run of the year. His stat line has been fantastic, albeit in a limited sample size, and he has provided more offensive production than we ever saw from Lou Marson. We argued to no end about how the Indians should use Gomes moving forward and to his credit he has made those of us who pushed for him to be used more look like we actually know what we’re talking about.

The Bad: Corey Kluber didn’t get the job done. The Indians are struggling and had already lost the first two games of the series to the Yankees. They needed Kluber to come out and put together a solid performance but instead he allowed the Yankees to jump ahead early 6-0, and forced the Tribe to play catch up yet again.

The “Huh?”: Travis freakin’ Hafner. Are you kidding me. Ok, we get it. He’s mad that the Indians changed the name of Pronkville. He’s mad that the Indians didn’t resign him. He’s probably even mad that everyone groaned in displeasure anytime the idea of resigning him was brought up. Now, can he please stop hitting home runs against the Indians and looking like the 2006 version of himself?